Swisstool for Your Everyday Carry
The Swiss have an extensive history of producing the highest quality products across the globe. The Swiss Army knife is renowned for Swiss quality and craftsmanship. First made in 1897, the Swiss Army knife is still issued to the Swiss Army today. In fact, Victorinox and Wenger, the manufacturers of this favored pocket knife, supply the Swiss Army with 50 thousand knives each year. Its worldwide popularity is due to its extensive assortment of instruments and uses and for its reputation for outlasting other popular brands of pocket knives. They have proved so favoured they are today used on expeditions to harsh climates such as the North Pole, Antarctica and Mt. Everest, and are even supplied as Popular equipment to the crew of space shuttles.
Karl Elsener, a Swiss cutler, is accredited for making the first Swiss Army knife. Horrified that the Swiss Army was being supplied with knives manufactured in Germany, he founded the Switzerland Cutlers’ Association. He later founded the Victorinox company. Another company, Wenger, also won a contract for supplying these knives to the Swiss Army. Both of these manufacturers continue to make these knives for both the Swiss Army and the public today. The first knife was named the ‘Officer’s and Sports Knife’. During World War II, US soldiers had trouble saying its Swiss name, ‘Schweizer Offizer Messer’, so they named it the Swiss Army knife.
Common instruments on the Swiss Army knife include multiple sized blades, pair of scissors, tooth-picks, tweezers,